Archives

Highlighted in a comment on a recent Boing Boing feature on medical uses of 3d printing, Frontline Medicine gives a neat overview of the shape of things to come.

The shape, it would seem, is quite humanoid. In fact, it is by using close cousins to the digital manufacturing technologies that we are so fond of here at Ponoko, that scientists and researchers are already able to bring about near-miraculous changes to the healing of major injuries.

As with many high-tech solutions, it is the intensified demands of the battlefield that are driving the latest medical advances. These technologies will (and indeed do) filter down to the general public eventually, so even if you’re not on the front line, you could some day be printing yourself some new flesh and bones when your existing set needs a bit of an overhaul.

The 3d printing kicks in at about 4:30 in the video. Just be warned, there are some graphic surgical procedures shown in this footage so be careful if you are queasy with this kind of thing.

While this may all seem like it is closer to the realm of science-fiction than our contemporary reality, just imagine what the reaction to a Makerbot or Arduino board would have been only a few decades ago…